BRITAIN: The Saudi Oxford Program for Educational Leadership (SOPEL) kicked off Monday at Oxford University in the United Kingdom with the participation of 40 men and women from the Kingdom. The program aims to produce effective senior education leaders who are capable of introducing change, prepare for a knowledge-based society, and face current and future challenges. The program focuses on several primary areas including successful leadership in educational institutions and the challenges facing education systems in the 21st century. The participants in the program will also discuss the fundamental issues which leaders need to develop education, successful education system standards through access to international experiences, the importance of professional development for schools' leadership and teachers, as well as focusing on the social, economic and educational changes that affect education systems. The Saudi Oxford Program for Educational Leadership (SOPEL) has three modules. The first two are completed in two consecutive weeks at Oxford University in the United Kingdom while the third module is carried out over five months in Saudi Arabia. The modules focus basically on strategies of development. The male and female participants will prepare education developmental projects in addition to their core job. In the last week of the third module, participants work full time on all their projects. The program provides the participants with distinctive and intensive knowledge on how to strengthen the competitiveness of the education sector, human resources, the knowledge-based economy and the sectors of strategic importance to the Saudi economy. The program is being carried out under the supervision of professors from Oxford University, international experts and Saudi executive officials with well-established experience in these sectors. The program also includes an advanced scientific review and methodological development of leadership skills. The program also helps to lay down work plans from the experience gained at the Saudi Oxford Advanced Management and Leadership Program (SOAMLP). The selection of the King Abdullah Project for Developing General Education as a partner with Oxford University has come as a result of the latter's pioneering role and international reputation in preparing leadership programs over the past 800 years, and its concern for the development of the education sector in the Kingdom.
